Mama dreams of MOMA

I Loved painting when I was little. Whenever I pretended to run away from home I carried my little yellow knapsack with a sandwich, a doll and crayons and paper. I couldn't fathom leaving the house without stuff to scribble. Then along comes my offspring. The first time P is introduced to a new medium he delves in deeply for an hour, resurfaces and never really looks back. I've set up countless art possibilities and the only things slightly artistic P returns to are play doh (especially the peppermint scented!) and glue. We spend days in play-doh-land and the child could drip an entire glue factory without feeling satiated. But he doesn't actually want to Glue anything together (nature collage, magazine collage, paper collage, bean collage, no thanks), its just the dripping, pouring, squirting, running, well, you get the idea.

Wanting P to have a healthy vision of productive adults (consistently involved with the child but not constantly revolving around the child), I've decided to try working some during the day. Maybe it will also help him spend a little time in independent play? I told P my plan this morning and asked if he wanted to do art beside me while I worked? Oh yes, he says, and Baby Brother needs a little easel too - he'd alacazat him and then BB can magically be an artist too! We traipsed to the art store for my paper and something to interest P, but I had low expectations. He'd be back to his trains by lunch.

Then we saw it. Little plastic squeeze bottles. The perfect size for a child's hands. Almost identical to the food coloring containers in our kitchen that he's obsessed with. Something that would produce a squirt similar to... Glue!!! We snatched them up along with some paint and hurried home.

That was at noon. P was still painting at 7 tonight. He took a break twice, to eat and dance, but otherwise he was absorbed in his work. I feel like an ass for not seeing the solution sooner. He isn't so fond of finger painting (then he has to (gasp!) wash his hands) or painting with brushes. But he Loves color. (Typical child, the brighter and more covered in glitter, the more fun!) He Loves mixing colors. But watercolors just turn into a puddly, muddy mess and mummy has reminded him way too often that pricey food coloring stains Everything. But ketchup and glue squirters with saturated color, well now, hello nirvana.

His interest is deepest with new things, so I try extra hard to Butt Out when he's experimenting. Always a challenge for me:) P eschewed the brushes we'd bought, requested certain colors to be mixed in his squirters and then set to work in an inventive way. He laid color over color, overlapping again and again. (I was glad for the 80# paper) Then he took a nearby stick and drug it through the colors. He'd pick up the entire project to let the mass slide and then squirt some additions with his other hand. It was methodical and focused and fascinating to watch. I'm fairly certain the by-products of his enjoyment are far lovelier than anything I've ever thought of. So, it was a good thing the store didn't have my paper, it was way too much fun to watch Him work and refill his squirters every 2 minutes. Maybe the world can stop revolving around P on Wednesday...